[RE-wrenches] RE; ARCO Solar and Carrizo Plain

[North Texas Renewable Energy Inc]

ARCO built the place in the early 80s because of the late 70s energy
crisis...
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The response to the '70s energy crisis, though it was about oil, included
the formation of PURPA:

The Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) is a law, passed in 1978
by the United States Congress as part of the National Energy Act. It is
meant to promote greater use of domestic renewable energy. The law forced
regulated, natural monopoly electric utilities to buy power from other more
efficient producers, if that cost was less than the utility's own "avoided
cost" rate to the consumer; the avoided cost rate was the additional costs
that the electric utility would incur if it generated the required power
itself, or if available, could purchase its demand requirements from another
source. At the time generally, where demand was growing, this was considered
to be the construction and fossil fuel costs incurred in the operation of
another thermal power plant.

This free market approach presented investment opportunity and government
encouragement [$$$] for more development of environment-friendly, renewable
energy projects and technologies; the law created a market in which
non-utility Independent Power Producers developed, and some energy market
players failed.

http://www.ask.com/wiki/Public_Utility_Regulatory_Policies_Act


So when the govt funds ran out [the utilities didn't do this out of the
goodness of their hearts] the big RE displays were dismantled and it was
back to business as usual. The lesson learned by the utilities was that,
with a significantly lower cost, RE could be profitable. We have witnessed
this around the world thx first to the wind industry and now to China for
the collapse of the PV market.

The key to the weak success of the PV industry was largely due to the
definition of "avoided cost" which only includes the cost in dollars to
generate the electricity. The definition clearly avoids references to any
other secondary financial benefits like no emissions from burning dirty
stuff to generate electric power.

I recall a recent California legislative battle to redefine avoided cost to
include something to do with geothermal [?] where the utilities lost the
battle but the final outcome is still up in the air.


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